Democrats, GOP moderates challenge president's agenda

July 08, 2001|By Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post.

WASHINGTON — President Bush, who dominated the agenda on Capitol Hill during the early months of his administration, is facing increased resistance to his policies as Congress returns from its 4th of July recess, not only from newly empowered Senate Democrats but also from emboldened Republican moderates in the House.

With the House this week planning to take up campaign-finance legislation that passed the Senate despite Bush's reservations, and to follow that with consideration of a bill to extend new rights to Americans in managed-care health plans, GOP leaders and rank-and-file members say Bush's skills of persuasion will be tested.

Administration officials say Bush plans to press ahead with his priorities, including completion of education legislation by a House-Senate conference committee and his proposals on energy, trade and providing federal support for religious charities. Republicans say the president will have to do a better job at selling his proposals and be more willing to compromise if he wants to regain his footing with Congress.

Senior House Republicans said the president and his top deputies need to increase their contact with lawmakers, asserting that Bush officials failed to lobby the rank and file last month when the House cast several votes undercutting the administration's energy policy.

"The White House has some work to do, that's clear," said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

GOP moderates said the president's relations with Capitol Hill are entering a new phase that will require more give and take between the White House and congressional Republicans. "You're seeing a maturing of the relationship," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.).

The problems confronting Bush are twofold. In the Senate, the Democratic majority is pursuing a far different agenda than the president's. This was vividly demonstrated last month when the Senate passed a Democratic-backed patients' rights bill that would give Americans far broader powers to sue their health maintenance organizations than Bush has said he can support. Nine Republicans backed the bill.

In the House, a series of votes shortly before the recess, dozens of Republicans broke with the administration on the environment and trade, providing the first cracks in what had been a largely unified GOP front in the chamber.

With the 2002 election drawing nearer, many Republicans from competitive districts are worried they could jeopardize their re-election by aligning themselves too closely with Bush's more conservative policies or by opposing Democratic proposals popular among moderate voters. As a result, House GOP leaders say, it will be difficult to maintain the uniform Republican support that characterized the president's early victories on his budget, tax cut and education proposals.

White House officials say Bush plans to work on convincing GOP lawmakers that it is in their interest to be as loyal in the months ahead as they were at the outset of the administration. "His personal involvement is significant and will continue to be," said White House congressional lobbyist Nicholas Calio.

Officials say the administration does not plan to launch a major offensive when the House takes up a campaign-finance bill that would impose new restrictions on political donations by unions, businesses and individuals, opting instead to let House GOP leaders steer the debate.

The leadership is backing a proposal by the House Administration Committee chairman, Robert Ney (R-Ohio), that would limit party donations by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals to $75,000 each. Lawmakers also will consider a version of the measure that Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) successfully offered in the Senate, which would ban such "soft money" donations outright.

White House officials say Bush will focus on convincing moderate Republicans to oppose a bipartisan patients' rights bill similar to that passed by the Senate. Bush will lobby for a GOP bill giving patients the right to sue their health plans only in rare instances. White House officials say they hope that if the House adopts the GOP version they can modify the Senate-passed legislation during conference negotiations.